What I find funny (re: dumbfounding) about the 'wisdom' behind such predictions as comets (and many other 'significant' astronomical events) is how they take place across the whole of the planet, yet the amazing event only seems to affect one small area.
Case in point - Halley's comet in 1066. If it was such a harbinger of doom, it only had a very localised impact for something (i.e. a comet) that should have affected the whole planet. It may indeed have been a significant year for the English, but what about the Patagonians? Or the Chinese? Or the Easter Islanders? Plus every other part of the globe. Was 1066 such an important year for them as well, or just England? Again, coincidence. Nothing more.
So much for the wisdom of those wise old seers!
When it comes to knowing what plants can be found where, and when to pick them, and what they can be used for, and our responsibility to the habitat about us. And things like that. THEN I will happily take the wisdom of the elders. But when it comes to using arbitrary astronomical events to predict what might come next and what they signify...well, I think at that point the wisest thing the wise can do is to know their limits.